Giving the Slips the slip

Erwen gingerly took a step forward and surveyed the chamber with its illusory floor. He chewed on his lower lip, deep in thought, as he looked the room over. He took note of the room’s ceiling, a jumbled tangle of sagging crossbeams and rotten sailcloth, and his sharp eyes picked out a strip of paint that traced a strange line that doubled back on itself and crisscrossed the uneven surface, leading generally, if convolutedly, southward. “That’s it!” he said. “They marked a safe path on the ceiling!” he stepped forward, keeping his eyes on the painted line above him. “If we just-” There was a rush of wind from below. His left heel slipped through the illusory floor and Erwen struggled to remain upright. “Okay,” he wheezed. “It’s a narrow path, but-” Erwen was interrupted by the roars of his animal companions Yogi and Boo-Boo. From the sounds of the shouts of agony from the chamber beyond, they were biting and clawing a group of Slips bandits. Siegfried could hear Belyra shouting, “leave the half-orc alone, he’s nice!” Alec shouldered Rethan’s body and walked confidently across the illusory floor, changing direction smartly to match the ceiling path. He quickly negotiated a third of the way across the chamber. “Right then,” Bob squared his shoulders and took Erwen’s advice, shuffling forward while trying to trace the path above him. He immediately fell through the illusory floor. Sighing, he misty stepped back to safety. “Let’s try that again!” he said as he continued to edge himself forward. Again, he fell, arms and legs pinwheeling as he struggled vainly for a handhold. Instead he crashed painfully through a forest of broken beams, their lengths studded with rusty nails that tore at his flesh. He landed with a sickening thud on the surface of the water, Erwen’s water walk spell keeping him from being lost beneath the shallow waters at the base of a 20-foot-deep cavern. “Bobby!” Varien called through the floor. “Are you okay?” “It’s pronounced Bob!” Bob’s reply was weak but audible. “Okay, then!” Varien took a running start and used his boots of striding and springing to leap to a spot near Alec. He skidded to a halt. Hadow took up a ready position at the side of the doorway, as if to defend Siegfried from attackers. “Listen, boss, I feel a little guilty about getting clocked on the head like an amateur.’ Siegfried was plotting a course along the illusory path. “Don’t let it happen again,” he said distractedly. “Yeah, but I turned lemons into lemonade, see,” Hadow said. “After they brained me I played dead but kept my ears open, and I learned a thing or two.” “I look forward to a formal debriefing,” Siegfried said. “Yeah, but I think this team of Slips pirates made a side deal and didn’t cut their boss Palas in on it!” Hadow said. This got Siegfried’s attention. “Do tell,” he said to his subordinate. Hadow nodded. “So this group’s leader, Fosco, the priest of Umberlee, kept talking about a deal they made with the Dead Rats to feed the body I was after to the Cleaner. Didn’t sound like Palas was in the know.” “Interesting,” Siegfried said. “And the Dead Rats are?” “They’re major players in Neverwinter’s underworld, that’s for certain,” Hadow said. “Very interesting,” Siegfried said. “But we should continue this conversation when our situation is less,” he eyed the trapped chamber. “Precarious.” “Sure thing, boss,” Hadow said as he took a running jump and cartwheeled his way to a spot near Alec and Varien. “Shadowfelling showoffs,” Siegfried said under his breath. He hauled on the door and pulled it until it was mostly closed, giving him a good view of the room while giving himself some cover. From his vantage point he could see one of the Slips, the one with the hook-and-chain, land a killing blow on one of Erwen’s bears. The conjured creature let out a yelp of pain that was like the shattering of a thousand crystal chandeliers and disappeared from this plane of existence in a scatter of light. Several pirates wielding crossbows rushed through the hole left in their defensive line, training their weapons on the second bear as they fanned out along the ledge that encircled the Cleaner’s lair. A crossbow bolt struck the door above Siegfried’s head. Siegfried frowned and hexed the Slips bandit, and then pelted him with three eldritch blasts, two of which caught the Halfling squarely. The bandit stumbled close to the edge of the ledge as the weird energy played over him. There was a vengeful roar as the second bear laid into the wounded pirate, drawing blood. Then the pirates opened up on the lone defender and shot the creature full of crossbow bolts. Yogi writhed in pain and disappeared. Siegfried drew himself up to his full height and caught the attention of the pirate across the chamber. “The Rats send their regards,” he sneered. “Your services will no longer be required.” Then he began to pull the stone door closed behind him. “Varien, now!” Siegfried said to the paladin. Varien dropped his concentration. Instantly there was a bloop and the chamber was filled with the undulating ooze, which seemed to have grown considerably while off the prime material plane. There were shouts of dismay from all in the room as the ooze began to extend sloshing pseudopods at all living targets. “Fall back!” the hook-and-chain Halfling shouted. “We need a barricade!” Erwen felt a shudder as his conjured companions shuffled off the mortal coil and it was enough to distract him as he walked the narrow path. The Halfling took a head through the floor that wasn’t there, striking several bits of broken beam and snagging himself on many a jagged metal barb before coming to a sliver-inducing halt a few feet away from Bob, who was painfully getting to his feet. “Hey,” Erwen said. “Hey,” Bob said wearily. The cleric looked around him and ignited his driftglobe. The magical light source reveals a small tunnel heading to the east. Bob shrugged and followed the tunnel. He came out in a much larger cavern and saw a rickety staircase leading upwards from the water to a slanted catwalk that was lashed and bolted to every outcropping available. The eastern side of the cavern wall was an overlapping, patched barrier of rooftops, archways and poop decks, and looked quite familiar now that he thought about it. Then the massive, bloated shape of the riptide ghoul breached the surface of the water, thrashing angrily at the weak-walled barrier. Bob slunk back silently into the cavern behind him. “We’re not going out that way,” he said. Varien offered Alec a rope, which the eldritch knight began to play down into the cavern beneath the illusion. “Grab the rope!” Erwen suggested, pointing to the rope that was unspooling from above. Bob nodded and tied one end of the rope around his waist. The paladin took a look at the room, which was filled with various odds and ends like trunks, barrels and cots. “Clearly those can’t be illusions,” Varien said to himself. He took off with a bounce towards a bedframe nearly halfway across the room. And fell right through the illusory furniture. There was a series of clanging thuds as Varien caromed off the sharp-edged pieces of broken iron banding and armored keel fragments. The harsh landing didn’t bother him nearly as much. “Hey,” he said to Erwen and Bob. “Hey,” they replied. Varien dusted himself, looked up, and sprang upwards, catching a gauntlet on the improvised bridgework that laid out the true, albeit narrow path through the cavern. He began to pull himself up. “You know,” Hadow scratched his chin. “I might have a trick up my sleeve that could help us in this situation.” “Do tell,” Siegfried said. “Wanna see a rope trick?” Hadow asked. Alec shrugged and handed the Halfling the rope. Hadow drew out some spell components – a twisted loop of parchment and powdered corn extract, and breathed an incantation. The rope began to glow, twitch, and rise to the ceiling of the chamber until it stood perfectly perpendicular to the ground. “Your sanctum awaits, fellows,” Hadow said with a bow. Then he jumped up, caught the rope, and shimmied his way upward until he disappeared through an invisible entrance at the top of the rope. “Well played, Wily,” Siegfried said as he misty stepped out, caught the rope, and did likewise. Alec shouldered the corpse and pulled himself up the rope. Erwen suddenly emerged from the illusory floor, furiously crawling hand over hand until he blinked out of sight in the ceiling. “This job’s only half done, fellows,” he called out. Varien hauled himself onto the narrow path, shrugged when he saw the Halfling disappear, and climbed up the rope. Bob grumbled to himself as he pulled himself up the rope. Soon the party had gathered in an extradimensional space. Alec pulled the last loop of the rope in, and the invisible portal closed. “Now then,” Siegfried said as he turned to Erwen. “You mentioned something about a cloud?” Erwen grinned and pulled out his pipe. “First we make clouds, then we become clouds.” He sparked the pipe up. Normal 0 false false false EN-CA ZH-CN X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} “I think I can think of a suitable song of rest that goes along with that sort of pastime,” Siegfried said as he pulled out his instrument.

The extradimensional pocket afforded the party by Hadow’s rope trick gave them a bird’s eye view of the Slips’ warren. They could hear far-off shouts of panic and the occasional rumble of a magical detonation that led them to believe the gargantuan ooze had overcome the gang’s defenses. They were obviously preoccupied with putting the ooze in its place, because no pirate came through the door in pursuit. While the party rested and tended to their injuries, Siegfried and Hadow talked business. “So, as I was saying earlier, this Slips sub-lieutenant, Fosco, keeps whispering to his partner Zenric, the fellow with the hook-and-chain?” “Yes, I remember him,” Siegfried said, arching an eyebrow that indicated Hadow should get on with it. “Yes, right, well, anyway, Fosco and Zenric are going on and on about this deal that they’d made with the Dead Rats to feed this particular corpse to the Cleaner. They’d hired a scragg to fish it out of the water beneath the Moonstone Mask and everything. So Zenric starts in, saying that because I showed up, that meant others were poking around looking for this exact same corpse for some reason, and so obviously it was more important than they first thought.” “Obviously,” Siegfried said. “Yeah,” Hadow nodded. “So meanwhile I’m sitting there trying not to rub this goose egg on my noggin and I’m thinking to myself, ‘self, this is mighty strange,’ because usually the only thing that the Slips and the Dead Rats exchange with one another is blows, blades, and backstabs.” “Quite,” Siegfried said. “And the way Zenric and Fosco are carrying on, it sounded to me like their boss Palas had been cut out of the deal entirely!” Hadow continued. “Tell me, Wily One,” Siegfried said. “Where do the Dead Rats call home, and how far does their influence extend?” “Well, it’s said that you don’t want to poke around in the sewers of the Blacklake District if you know what’s good for you,” Hadow said. “And the northern docks, that’s where the Slips and the Dead Rats’ territories sort of, you know, overlap.” “Would the Dead Rats’ territory extend to the Sleeping Dragon Bridge?” Siegfried said. Hadow shook his head. “Their influence might, but the Sleeping Dragon is close enough to the docks for it to be considered Slips turf, if you get my meaning. But it’s all part of the Protector’s Enclave, so you have to factor that in.” “Naturally,” Siegfried said. Meanwhile, Bob was examining the corpse of Rethan the assassin. His keen eyes observed that the man’s boots were coated in a thick sludge of grease, the sort of lubricant used to keep large chains from kinking up. Bob was reminded of the great chain that guarded the harbor in Kirkwall, and then realized where he’d seen chains of similar gauge in Neverwinter – they were holding down the Moonstone Mask and keeping it from floating away. The assassin’s hands were calloused and his arms pitted with shiny lesions left behind by burns. Bob figured this man worked as a blacksmith or blacksmith’s apprentice when he wasn’t attempting to assassinate public figures. The subtle hint of hay and manure on his bedraggled clothing suggested he spent much of his time near one of the city gates. “Tell me, Hadow, do the Dead Rats and the Thayans ever cross paths, and do either of them work with the Nashers?” Siegfried asked Hadow. “Thayans?” Hadow’s eyes went wide. “Nashers? Boss, what kind of company are you keeping?” “I asked about the Sleeping Dragon Bridge because we ran into evidence of Thayan activity there – runes for some sort of hellish necromancy.” “Well, they say the Nashers ain’t too picky when it comes to choosing partners,” Hadow said. “They’re desperate, and desperation leads to strange bedfellows, if you get my meaning.” “I do get your meaning,” Siegfried said. “So you think the Nashers are working with the Thayans?” Hadow scratched his chin. “Well, that certainly complicates things.” “What can you tell me about Thayans in Neverwinter?” Siegfried asked. “Well, there are a few here and there,” Hadow said. “A couple of them we keep our eyes on, you know? As they say, “Never Trust a Thayan,” amirite?” “Indeed,” Siegfried said. “Well, anyway, these Thayans in town, they’re mostly expats, and they’re made to swear fealty to the Lord Protector in exchange for being left, well, not alone exactly, but mostly unmolested. Apparently they don’t like Szass Tamm or whoever is running Thaymount back east.” “Is that so?” Siegfried said. “I have it on good authority,” he said, brandishing the detailed intelligence reports that Radegast had drawn up for him, “that Thayan agents have been active in the region, searching for ancient secrets and evils, as close by as Old Owl Well.” “Really?” Hadow asked. “Yes,” Siegfried said. “My colleagues here prevented them from awakening a foul evil that could have threatened the entire region.” “Well, that’s above my pay grade, boss.” Hadow shrugged. “I’m just a field agent.” “Would Garmen Ulreth know more?” Siegfried asked. “He was working a joint operation with the Order of the Gauntlet on this Thayan file.” Hadow nodded. “Sure, but really it was Absalon who kept track of this sort of thing.” Siegfried frowned. “Absalon. Clearly we need to bring him in from the cold.” “That’s your call, boss.” Hadow said diplomatically. Siegfried gave Hadow a grim smile. “Thank you for the debriefing. I won’t dock you those 300 gold pieces you lost.” Hadow winked. “I thought it was 100 gold, boss.” “That’s what I said,” replied Siegfried. He gave the Halfling an appraising glance and then nodded to the shortsword he had offered Hadow earlier. “That sabre is Eldreth Veluuthra silver, and it’s yours. Good work.” Hadow looked at the sword with newfound appreciation. “Neat!” he said. “We will be moving very quickly, Harpshadow ,” Siegfried said, emphasizing Hadow’s battlefield promotion. “I will be needing your services to feed information to the rest of our outfit. I want you to follow up on next steps and any leads that uncover themselves. Ask your comrades about anything related to Thayan influence, the Dead Rats, and the Nashers, and get me evidence that they are colluding to knock the Lord Protector from his seat of power.” “Yes sir,” Hadow said, saluting smartly. “I need to…” Siegfried pondered this for a moment. “ advise the Lord Protector of the proper course of action.” “I see, Boss,” Hadow chirped. “And we will have to make Absalon see the error of his ways,” Siegfried continued. “I shall have use for him sober, it seems. Get a message to Merey and tell her to keep a closer eye on him.” “Will do, Boss,” Hadow said. Erwen walked by Bob, who was going through the assassin’s pockets for the third time. He leaned over and bit off one of Rethan’s fingers. “What are you doing?” Bob asked, incredulous. Erwen spit the finger out into his hand where it sat like an undercooked sausage. “In case we need to bring him back.” He looked into Bob’s eyes searchingly. “Can I have some of your holy water?” Bob backed away. “So, chief investigator,” Siegfried said to Bob. “What do we have here?” “From the look of his boots I’d say he scaled the chains that anchor the Moonstone Mask and somehow made his way inside,” Bob said. “So,” Siegfried said. “This Rethan was clever enough to climb up the chains and avoid detection, but not smart enough to take a proper sniper’s position to eliminate his target?” He turned to Hadow. “What do you think?” “Well, I mean, I wasn’t there, so, but from the way you described it, it sounds to me like this was a distraction and this assassin was some sort of patsy.” Hadow said. “So the assassin was wearing a Thayan mask of disguise, and carried a Nasher totem,” Siegfried said. His mind was spinning. “I’m beginning to think that there was a plot to misdirect the Lord Protector.” He turned to Hadow. “Do we have anyone on the inside in the Moonstone Mask?” Hadow shook his head. “The Moonstone Mask is a tough nut to crack.” “A pity,” Siegfried said. “You think the Nashers are working with the Red Wizards?” Varien asked. Siegfried smiled. “Pay attention to this, Wily One.” He turned and faced the group. “People like to draw a circle around the truth and say that everything outside of that circle is a lie.” Siegfried shook his head. “But the truth is, anything can be true if you provide evidence and talk long enough.” He nodded to Bob. “Our task is to frame the evidence and give it the right context.” “We’re not lying, Siegfried,” Varien said, crossing his arms. “Heaven forbid!” Siegfried exclaimed theatrically. “I genuinely believe that the Nashers and the Dead Rats manipulated this poor fellow” – he kicked Rethan’s corpse – “and goaded him into attempting to kill the Lord Protector. And in the background, the Thayan Red Wizards, plotting and prodding. And I’m not against framing that involvement as more substantial if it suits our purposes.” “You’re forgetting something,” Varien said. “This Rethan was a Harper and carried a Harper pin, which the Lord Protector took off his body before throwing him into the harbor.” “No doubt the Nashers wish to redirect the anger and retribution of the Lord Protector against a known quantity, a group that they have a long grudge against,” Siegfried said. “The Harpers are here to help Neverwinter, but the Nashers are the enemy of the Lord Protector and would profit by manipulating him into attacking the Harpers, thus blinding him to his true enemy.” Varien nodded slowly. Siegfried turned to Hadow. “You see what I did there?” he murmured. Hadow smiled approvingly. Siegfried called to Erwen, who was pocketing the severed finger. “Small man, I believe you mentioned a cloud conveyance?” Erwen nodded. “We can loop past the Hall of Justice and present our evidence and its interpretation to the Lord Protector,” Siegfried said. Bob nodded slowly. “Don’t forget about the actual Danan Starling,” Varien said. “Alec says he’s under the Order of the Gauntlet’s protection. And I’d like to go to the Crystal Cathedral and pick up my armor. It must be done by now.” “Fine then,” Siegfried said. “To the Sacred Park of Sune, as fast as the wind can take us!” Erwen began to cast wind walk as Hadow’s rope trick neared the end of its duration.   A fast-moving fog-like cloud expelled itself from the exit of the Slips’ domain beneath the Neverwinter docks and quickly rose above ground level, flitting past the spires of Castle Never in wispy trails as it headed eastward towards the Sacred Park of Sune. A small portion disengaged and moved amid the rooftops towards the House of a Thousand Faces. The cloud descended on the grounds of the Crystal Cathedral and coalesced into the forms of Siegfried, Alec, Bob, Varien, and Erwen. Siegfried sent a runner to the Hall of Justice to set a suitable appointment with the Lord Protector for Investigator Trevelyan to present his evidence of an assassination conspiracy. Rose-Tender Alicia greeted the party as they mounted the steps to the Crystal Cathedral’s entrance. “Rose-Tender, so good to see you,” Varien said. “I thought I would inquire after my armour?” Alicia smiled a brilliant smile. “Of course, brother. I believe you’ll find it ready and polished in our artisanal armory.” “Thank you, Rose-Tender,” Varien said. She regarded the rest of the party. “Brother Trevelyan, thank you for coming.” Bob nodded. Alicia’s smile widened. “And you have brought newcomers to the Sacred Park of Sune! Welcome! Are you pilgrims as well?” Siegfried smiled. “Weary travelers, of a sort.” Alicia clapped her hands and a number of acolytes stepped into view. “Well then, you must avail yourself of our amenities. Our steam baths, hot rock massage, tranquility gardens and art studios are all at your disposal. Welcome, friends, to the Crystal Cathedral.” “That all sounds lovely, actually,” Siegfried replied. Alicia nodded. “Would you require a priest or priestess to attend to you during your stay?” Siegfried grew pensive. “Priestess, thank you,” Varien said. “I’ll take a priest!” Erwen chirped. “A priestess would be fine,” Siegfried finally said. Bob rolled his eyes. “Teagan! Joelle! Chad!” Alicia called. Three acolytes, each fair in their countenance, stepped forward. “Escort these pilgrims to the steam baths.” Erwen looked Chad up and down. “Chad, is it?” The well-built acolyte bowed. “I think I’m good,” Erwen said. “Just point me to a patch of dirt nobody’s using at the moment.” Chad smiled and pointed towards the grounds. Erwen scampered off, found a clear patch of dirt, and lay down in it, making dirt-angels as he was obscured by a cloud of dust.   After his bath and massage, Varien walked along a cloistered path towards the armory, where he found his repaired and reconsecrated armour waiting for him. He couldn’t suppress an excited grin as the attendants helped him into his shiny new plate armor, a symbol of Sune emblazoned on the chest plate.   Siegfried was doing some mental math about wind-speed velocity of magical clouds that kept him distracted throughout Joelle’s ministrations. Finally he asked the priestess if there was a map room in the Crystal Cathedral. “We don’t keep maps as part of our library,” Joelle said. “For that you should try the House of Knowledge.” “Thank you,” Siegfried said. “One of my companions needs to stop by that library.” “However, we do have a contemplation chamber that shows the distance to other Sunnite shrines on the Sword Coast,” Joelle said. “Does that help?” “That would be fine.” Joelle led Siegfried to a chamber whose walls were set with stained glass showing, in an abstract manner, the approximate location of Sunnite shrines and temples along the Sword Coast. Siegfried traced a line from Neverwinter to Waterdeep and did some calculations. Normal 0 false false false EN-CA ZH-CN X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} “Well then, I guess we’ll be having dinner at House Thann,” he murmured to himself with a growing smile.